Cheryl Reeve becomes WNBA's all-time leader in regular-season wins
Published in Basketball
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Lynx dropped back-to-back games for the first time this season with their head coach Cheryl Reeve on the verge of setting the WNBA’s all-time record for regular season wins by a head coach.
After Monday’s loss to the Connecticut Sun, Lynx guard Kayla McBride was asked whether players felt pressure to get their newly-inducted Hall of Fame leader her milestone 380th win.
“Cheryl’s not that type of coach,” McBride said. “She doesn’t like the attention. She likes to win.”
And win, again, they did, this time at Mohegan Sun Arena on Wednesday, beating the Sun 86-80.
The Lynx didn’t cruise to victory. They trailed early to a Sun team that scratched Brittney Griner (quad), who dropped 29 points against the Lynx on Monday, and saw another starter, Saniya Rivers, exit in the second quarter with an ankle injury.
But McBride led the Lynx with 23 points, and the team’s bench spurred a 8-0 run in the fourth quarter that helped the Lynx outscore the Sun 26-15 in the final frame.
Antonia Delaere and Dorka Juhasz (the latter in her second game back after recovering from a foot sprain) combined for 17 fourth-quarter points in the win. Juhasz shot 4 for 6 from 3, and Ola Kosu and Eliska Hamzova chipped in five points and three assists each.
Reeve’s 380th regular-season win over her 17 seasons as Lynx head coach officially pushed her past the mark set by former Sun and Washington Mystics coach Mike Thibault.
Delaere has played for both Reeve and Thibault, who now coaches her with the Belgian national team.
“I love how they both teach,” Delaere said. “It’s something that not all coaches are doing, but they really teach you. Every time I come to a practice, I learn something new.”
When Reeve sat down at the Lynx practice facility last week to reflect on her career thus far — after warning reporters they were “heavy jinxing” her with record-related questions — she recounted one of the main lessons she took from coaching the Lynx to four titles.
“It isn’t about the playbook,” Reeve said. “It’s about the players” — their buy-in, how they feel.
Take, for instance, shooting guard, turned point guard, turned shooting guard, back to point guard, Courtney Williams.
Williams, who ran point for the Lynx the last two seasons, slid back to her natural shooting guard position when the team drafted point guard Olivia Miles in April. Williams earned a second consecutive All-Star reserve nod despite the switch.
With Miles sidelined in both games against the Sun with a right calf strain, Williams took back the keys to the Lynx offense. She finished with 12 points, seven assists and four rebounds on Wednesday.
“That’s obviously what she gets paid to do,” Reeve said Monday. “We won 64 games with her doing that, so we’ll need her to call up those times, and be great for us.”
Many of the things Reeve has said are key to her longevity with the Lynx — “trust, and the ability to have honest conversations” — apply to Williams. “ Straight shooters,” Williams has called them both.
Said Williams: “[Reeve] already got the blueprint as far as basketball, but it’s like, you got to bring the right people in that she feels will buy into what it is that she already set the foundation for.”
On Wednesday, the Lynx trailed again early, recording nine first-half turnovers before steadying themselves.
The Lynx will look to continue to get back on track with a four-game homestand that starts with a noon matchup on Saturday against the Liberty.
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